Santos to start up Australia’s first commercial shale gas production

LONDON (ICIS)--?xml:namespace>Santos is preparing to start up Australia’s first commercial shale gas production, the CEO of the Australian oil and gas firm said on Friday.

CEO David Knox said that a well at Santos’ CooperBasin shale gas development began flowing dry gas at a rate of 2.6m standard cubic feet/day.

“The well is located within 350 metres of the existing gas gathering infrastructure, and connection activities have commenced to provide Australia’s first commercial production of gas from a shale well,” Knox said.

The CooperBasin is Australia’s largest onshore oil and gas resource project, according to information on Santos’ website.